Babyliss 5710 E Beliss

My hair is naturally thick, stubbornly wavy and turns to frizz the moment I step out the door. For years I have spent ages every morning blow drying my hair and then straightening it with hair straighteners. I had always felt that straighteners were bad for my hair because they are so hot and was fed up of the amount of time it took me to get ready in the morning - at the same time as being frizzy my hair also gets greasy very quickly so I don't have the option of not washing and drying my hair every morning. It was with great joy that I saw an advert on television for a hairdryer that straightened my hair at the same time as drying it. I was hoping that the hairdryer would be kinder to my hair than the straighteners I was using and also save me a bit of time in the morning.

I rushed out to my local Boots and forked out £29.99 for a Babyliss Beliss hairdryer. At £29.99 this hairdryer is at the upper end of the market but I figured that as it was a straightener as well as a hairdryer it was actually quite good value. The hairdryer is purple in colour and comes with two attachments - one for blow drying and one for straightening. It is about the same size as a normal hairdryer and looks quite modern and stylish.

My tactic was to rough dry my hair using the blow dry attachment and then to start straightening. The hairdryer itself is not as powerful as other hairdryers that I have had in the past and my hair took longer to dry than I was expecting. However, the hairdryer does operate very quietly which is a bonus. There are two settings - slow and fast. I've never really given the slow setting a go because I had already found that the fast one wasn't that powerful.

After rough drying my hair then I switched to the straightening attachment. This is a difficult manoeuvre to perform as the blow dry tool gets very very hot while the hairdryer is working - you need to be very careful to not burn yourself while trying to change attachments. The attachment is a brush with about five prongs which are very thick and are have ceramic straightening irons on either side. Hot air is pushed through the brush which dries your hair while the hot air also heats the ceramic plates which (supposedly) straighten your hair. The straightening tool is a bit difficult to operate becuase of the angle you have to hold it at but this gets easier with use. However, I haven't found the straightening attachment to be very effective at all. I acknowledge that my hair is very stubborn and that it takes a lot of make it straight but this straightening attachment did next to nothing for my hair. It does a good job of drying your hair but I found that my hair was only marginally straighter than if I had just blow dried it normally.

I didn't keep using the straightening tool so can't comment on any damage that it does to your hair, but I'd imagine that it would be better for your hair than most straighteners because it seems to be less hot than other straighteners that I have used in the past.

I have kept using the hairdryer attachment and it's kept working for more than nine months now but the straightening attachment has stayed in my cupboard - even if it takes longer to use a separate straightener I'd rather have my hair actually be straight. However, I have taken this on holiday with me sometimes when space is at a premium and I don't want to take a haridryer and straighteners. If you have thin hair that straightens easily then this might be a good alternative.